The son of the Sugoi peasant is at it again: Deputy President William Ruto is campaigning for the August 9 poll, with eyes set on the 2027 general election.
Musalia Mudavadi is a victim of Ruto's plot to edge out potential competition. Ruto is harassing Mudavadi out of the national stage. He is also stifling the Amani National Congress leader in Kakamega and other western counties.
The fox of Sugoi is trimming the presidential ambition of the eminent son of the Abhandu. The expectation was that the blue-eyed scion of the Abaluhyia was headed for the top. This was downgraded to a possible presidential running mate. There are no guarantees once Mudavadi was captured.
The trap was laid before Mudavadi's January 'earthquake'. The burial of the National Super Alliance peeled off Mudavadi from Raila Odinga's space. An external hand, possibly Ruto's, was suspected in the death of Nasa.
A Mudavadi supporting Raila, in Nasa, meant the former deputy prime minister would inherit ODM strongholds, particularly Nyanza. The Luo have a soft spot for Mudavadi, but he has not invested in this base.
Ruto enticed Mudavadi to stifle his possible influence in Western - one of ODM's key bases.
Mudavadi won't be Ruto's presidential running mate. Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua has often said Mudavadi should know the deputy presidency is reserved for Central Kenya. It's their prize for supporting Ruto.
Mudavadi leads an outfit Ruto once described as a 'village' party. The village party was promised 30 per cent share of national government, should Kenya Kwanza win.
Even ANC's village base is diminishing: UDA is competing with ANC in Western. The negotiated amity between Kakamega Senator Cleopas Malala and his former rival for the governor race, Boni Khalwale, is a message to Mudavadi.
Khalwale, a former Kakamega senator, is a Ruto poodle. It was Malala who brokered the Ruto-Mudavadi deal. Malala is running on the ANC ticket, but he is indebted to Ruto.
Mudavadi swore to be on the 2022 presidential ballot, but he is playing second fiddle to a political junior. Mudavadi arrived on the national stage in 1989, when he inherited his father's Sabatia parliamentary seat.
Mudavadi was a Cabinet minister in the Moi government when Ruto was a party activist under Youth for Kanu, a lobby, in 1992. Mudavadi's supporters now face the irony of supporting a supporter.
Mudavadi's influence in Nairobi and Western is being managed. Mudavadi 'anapangwa' by a political formation that claims 'sipangwingwi'.
Key ANC politicians have been edged out, as UDA proclaims dominance in Kenya Kwanza. The defection of Nairobi Senator Johnson Kosgei Sakaja from Mudavadi's column sends a message to ANC.
Other negotiated positions in Nairobi have diminished ANC's influence in the capital. UDA gave a direct ticket to former Law Society of Kenya president Nelson Havi, to run for Westlands parliamentary seat.
The Luhya have always dominated this seat, from Fred Gumo to incumbent Timothy Wanyonyi. UDA-allied Donald Mariga will be flying the KK flag in Kibera.
Nairobi's Kangemi, a populous informal settlement in Westlands constituency, like Kibra, is a Luhya dormitory. ANC and Mudavadi are increasingly finding it hard to breathe in Kenya Kwanza.
Ruto is repeating the game he played on President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2017. Jubilee rookies won party primaries under the DP's watch. The President was managing the bigger picture as Ruto sidelined senior politicians, especially from Central Kenya.
When the DP hit the succession road in 2018, the President had no one to defend him. The DP had Jubilee rookies responding to his tunes. Wamepangika!
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